The principal aims of this project are to establish methods suitable for culture of normal and diseased glomeruli and glomerular cells in vitro and to develop techniques for isolation of the three basic types of glomerular cells (epithelial, mesangial, and endothelial). Attempts will be made to characterize each glomerular cell type structurally and functionally. Most importantly, in vitro culture systems, in which patients' serum is added to glomeruli and glomerular cells in culture, will be used to establish models of human glomerular cell injury and "disease". Such techniques are especially important in establishing the role of each glomerular cell type in disease and in investigation of inherited renal diseases, since in vivo animal models are not satisfactory for such studies. Further, in vitro models will be especially useful in studying those diseases in which circulating serum factors are postulated to play a role, an example being the recurrent renal disease observed in some renal allografts. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES: Burkholder, PN, Oberley TD, Barber TA, Beacom A, Koehler C: Immune adherence in renal glomeruli: complement receptor sites on glomerular capillary cells. Amer J Path, in press, 1977.